Suchergebnisse

The East Siberian Arctic is an enormous territory. In many respects it still remains little explored. The main matrix for assembling versatile knowledge about the nature and man of the region is the Bering Land concept. In this article, the history of the development of theorethical grounds of the research and exploration of the region is discussed. The history of human settlement in arctic West Beringia spans approximately 50,000 years. More than two-century-long practice of archaeological study comprises three periods: the initial stage ending before WWII; post-war period, or Soviet stage (1940s to 1991); and the modern post-Soviet stage (1991 to the present day). Basic ideas on geology and paleogeography of the region were formed during the first two stages; then methodological grounds were expanded in archaeological studies. The first Pleistocene site was discovered in the area in the early 1970s. The knowledge on the ancient past of Beringia has been largely obtained within the modern stage of research when various evidence of the past human activity has been received, which enables to reconstruct the process of human settlement in the area. Unique objects of the world cultural heritage, such as Zhokhov and Yana sites, have been revealed. These materials allow identification of the complex technologies of the Stone Age, thanks to which people occupied these areas, and evaluation of the features of the socio-cultural development of the ancient population of the region. Results of the studies performed recently demonstrate a giant scholarly potential for further research in that area. Qualitative changes in the examination of the region are largely associated with the expansion of scholarly tools.

The phenomenon of the cultural layer is a fundamental concept of archaeology and the main object of study in the practice of field research. Despite this, its definition, surprisingly, still remains undeveloped. The widely known classical definition leaves many important questions unanswered. Thus, what about the horizon, formed in the past by redeposition of material, especially if this is not obvious? Can the bone-bearing horizon (for example, bone deposit of the mammoth "graveyard") definitely human-created but lacking (completely or almost completely) of formal artifacts be regarded as a cultural layer? What about areas of primary archaeological contexts, the elements of which retain their original structure and interconnection, but have lost their original spatial position along with the block of matrix sediments? In similar cases, except for burial structures, the concept of culture-bearing deposits, representing a specific geological formation, will be much more universal. Then culture-bearing deposits are deposits locally enriched with traces of past human activities (artifacts, technological waste, biological remains, structures, i. e., cultural remains sensu lato) as a result of the transfer and accumulation of matter in the process of lithogenesis. It should be emphasized that up to 65 % of the territory of Russia is the permafrost area, while that of the former permafrost zone was significantly larger and included currently unfrozen areas. The culture-bearing deposits of the Stone Age sites of the Late Pleistocene age represented in these regions undoubtedly experienced the impact of cryogenic processes. The study of the Stone Age sites in Eastern Siberia provides the richest opportunities and material for the development of this issue.

The Zhokhov site, investigated in 1989–1990 and 2000–2005, is located at 76°N in a remote part of the East Siberian Arctic. Excavations yielded tens of thousands of artifacts and faunal remains including the oldest anthropological remains known in the high arctic regions up to date. The culture-bearing deposits appear to represent the backfill of ice wedge casts formed after the site was abandoned when the island area became isolated due to the development of the post-glacial marine transgression. A large sample of radiocarbon ages obtained on various materials (n = 102) provides a chronology for the site, which was occupied 8300–7800 14С years ago. There were multiple occupation episodes, but it is not possible to estimate their duration with precision (within less than 50–100 years). The most intense human activity occurred within the interval 8050–7900 radiocarbon years BP, or ca. 9000 calBP but overall human occupation of the site spans roughly 2000 years. This is the oldest known archaeological site in the high-latitude Arctic. The identification and analysis of habitation episodes at the Zhokhov site has important implications for the study of Palaeolithic sites. The radiocarbon chronology indicates that repeated / cyclic human habitation at the same place is possible for up to 2000 years and possibly longer. Repeated or cyclic human occupation in the Zhokhov island area was possible due to locally available food and material resources. Thus, the radiocarbon dates provide more than chronomentric or chronological data; they are a source of information source about human ecology and its role in the evolution of culture.